Ikharev, who appeared in the city tavern, meticulously asks Alexey's tavern servant about the guests: who are they, are they playing, are they only playing with each other and where are the cards taken; generously rewards his comprehension and goes to the general hall to make acquaintance. Krugel and Shvokhnev appear and are interrogated by Gavryushka, the servant of the newcomer, where the master comes from, whether he is playing and winning now. Upon learning that Ikharev recently won eighty thousand, they suspect him of a cheater and are interested in what the master does, remaining alone. “He’s a master, he behaves well: he does nothing,” the answer follows. Rewarded and Gavryushka. Ikharev gives Alexei a dozen card decks so that he puts them during the game.
Shvokhnev, Krugel and the Comforter come, paying tribute to the "friendly caresses of the owner." The debate about whether the whole person belongs to society inspires the Comforter, bringing him to tears, of which Ikharev, however, does not trust too much. Having a snack and discussing the amazing properties of cheese, they sit down at the card table, and the guests are convinced that Ikharev is a sharpie of the first degree. The comforting man, persuading the others, admires the master’s art and, repenting of his previous intention to beat Ikharev, offers to conclude a friendly alliance. The approaching society exchanges amazing stories (about an eleven-year-old boy who juggles with inimitable art, about a certain respectable person who studies the key to the drawing of any card and gets five thousand a year for that). The consoling one reveals the most precarious possibilities of throwing speckled cards without arousing the slightest suspicion. Ikharev, trusting his friends, talks about his "Adelaide Ivanovna", a consolidated deck, each card of which can be correctly guessed by him, and demonstrates his art to a delighted society. Finding out a subject for military operations, new acquaintances tell Ikharev about the landowner Mikhail Alexandrovich Glove, who had mortgaged the estate for the sake of the wedding of his seventeen-year-old daughter and is now waiting for money. The trouble is that he does not play at all. The consolation goes after Glov and soon leads him. The acquaintance is followed by Glove’s complaints about the impossibility of staying in the city, as well as a discussion about the dangers of a card game caused by the appearance of those playing in the Krugel’s corner with Shvokhnev. Entered Alexei reports that Glove's horses are already served. Bowing away, the old man asks the Consoling One to look after his son, whom he leaves for the end of affairs in the city, for his son, twenty-two-year-old Sasha, is almost a child and dreams of hussars.
After seeing Glove, the Consolation goes for his son, intending to play on his hussar addictions and lure money, two hundred thousand, for the mortgaged estate. The newly arrived hussar is given champagne, they offer to take away his sister and sit down at the cards. Enraging the "hussar" and seeing something "Barclay de Tolievsky" in his courage, the Consolation forces him to let all the money go. The game stops, Sasha signs a bill. However, he is not allowed to recoup. He runs to shoot, they return him, they convince him to go straight to the regiment, and, after giving two hundred rubles, they take him off to the "little black woman". Official Zamukhryshkin comes from the order and announces that Glove’s money will be no earlier than two weeks. A comforting breaks it up to four days. The hasty astonishment of Ikharev is explained: the correct information was received from Nizhny Novgorod that the merchants sent the goods, the final deal was already on the nose, and instead of the merchants sons arrived. Assuming to beat them, the Consolator gives Ikharev a bill of Glova, begging him not to hesitate and immediately after receiving two hundred thousand to go to Nizhny, takes eighty thousand from him and leaves, following the Krugel, to hastily gather. Shvokhnev absented, recalling something important.
Ikharev’s blissful loneliness, thinking that he had eighty thousand in the morning, and now two hundred, is interrupted by the appearance of a young Glove. Upon learning from Alexei that the gentlemen had already left, he announces to Ikharev that he was carried out "like a vulgar stump." The old father is not a father, the official from the order is also from their company, and he is not Glov, but “was a noble man, involuntarily became a rogue”, undertook to participate in a fraud and conduct Ikharev, and for that they promised him three thousand who had been beaten before , but they didn’t give it and so they left. Ikharev wants to drag him to court, but, apparently, he can’t complain: after all, the cards were his, and in fact he participated illegally. His despair is so great that he cannot be comforted even by Adelaide Ivanovna, he throws something at the door and laments that he will always find a rogue "who will confuse you" by his side.
